Maharashtra: Shiv Sena reconstitutes panel of party spokespersons

The party leadership appointed south Mumbai MP Arvind Sawant as the party’s chief spokesperson along with Sanjay Raut. The decision to reconstitute the panel of spokespersons comes days after Raut’s criticism and comments irked Sena’s alliance partners Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress party.

The Shiv Sena leadership on Tuesday reconstituted the party’s panel of spokespersons. The party leadership appointed south Mumbai MP Arvind Sawant as the party’s chief spokesperson along with Sanjay Raut. The decision to reconstitute the panel of spokespersons comes days after Raut’s criticism and comments irked Sena’s alliance partners Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress party.

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Raut’s editorials and column in party mouthpiece Saamana has also taken shots at chief minister Uddhav Thackeray recently.

Over the past few weeks, Raut’s reiterations that NCP chief Sharad Pawar should head the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) upset the Congress leadership in Maharashtra. On Sunday, Raut in his weekly column had criticised home minister Anil Deshmukh regarding the allegations made by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh. In the same column, the Sena parliamentarian had also criticised the Uddhav Thackeray-led government saying it did not have a damage control plan in Sachin Vaze-Mansukh Hiran case.

The Sena had appointed Raut as the chief spokesperson and 10 other spokespersons including Sawant in September 2020. Within six months of his appointment, the party has reconstituted the panel of spokespersons.

Despite repeated attempts Raut was unavailable for a comment.

Sawant was the Union minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had held the heavy industries portfolio before he quit in November 2019 after the Sena pulled out of the NDA. In February, he was appointed the head of the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), the post that fell vacant after Suryakant Mahadik’s demise. BKS has over 500,000 members across the state from workers in airlines, airports, MTNL, hospitals, five-star hotels, banking and manufacturing sectors, etc.

As per the new list, the party has added MLA Bhaskar Jadhav who was vocal in the state Assembly while defending the party in Vaze case, and former minister Sachin Ahir who is known to be close to Sena scion Aaditya Thackeray. The party has also included MLCs Ambadas Danve and Manisha Kayande, corporator Sheetal Mhatre, former Mumbai mayor Dr Shubha Raul, OBC leader from Nagpur Kishore Kanhere, former MNS member Sanjana Ghadi and Anand Dubey, who is a north Indian face in the party.